Horace Pippin taught himself to paint and produced about 140 deceptively simple works depicting the injustice of slavery, his time as a soldier in the trenches and scenes from nature and the Bible. I just love them all.

(Above: Major General Smedley D. Butler, 1937)

The Getaway Fox, 1939

Portrait of Christian Brinton, 1940

Maple Sugar Season, 1941

The Trial of John Brown, 1942

The Artist's Wife, 1936

This reminds me of a trip we took to the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art with our grandpa as little kids. Our school had just done massive field trips there - my third grade class looked at the Chinese collections, while Porter's pre-K class explored the exhibits on the history of American homes. After I'd spent about an hour showing off my knowledge of chops and scrolls, Porter wanted to show grandpa what she'd learned. We started at the log cabin. "This is where the Indians lived," she said confidently and then walked grandpa to the next room that looked like it could've been ripped from Mt. Vernon. She paused, less sure of herself, but then proudly declared, "And this is where the rich Indians live!"

I've been prodding a co-worker to grow out his hair a bit so some small fluffy bits would poke out if he wore a baseball hat. He's absolutely against this and came in with yet another very short haircut that I compared to a high and tight. You look like you've stepped right out of VMI (the Virginia Military Institute, which sits roughly 100 feet from the shaggy hair capital of the world, Washington & Lee, my alma mater), I said. This made him very mad - and it made him even more mad when I showed him pictures of modern day cadets. But then I found these. Minus collar boy above, these guys almost look like hippies - or W&L students.

While clickin' around on the internets earlier today, I came across this fantastic military repro and deadstock militaria site - What Price Glory. This doesn't even cover the British wash basins or Black Watch jodhpurs (which would be awesome on the ladies, a bit much for the gents).

WPG has found a time capsule containing a quantity of original US mountain boots. These are the late pattern with cleated rubber soles. These boots are in used condition, but show little wear and are still serviceable. The best ones go out first. The laces and felt insoles have gone missing, but we will provide repro laces and some felt pads that you can cut to fit in the boots.

WPG has discovered that the Indian Army still produces PT shoes that are nearly identical to WWII British plimsolls. We have acquired a small lot in new unissued condition, and we're trying to get more.

This is the sweater immortalized in the WWII cartoon series "The Two Types." A heavy weight all wool sweater popular with British officers on the Northwest Frontier, it was worn in the Western Desert in WWII as a sign that the wearer had "been there," as opposed to being fresh from Blighty. Two front chest pockets, epaulets for wearing rank slides, cotton elbow patches.

The streets of New York can be so utterly bountiful at times - $5 picnic chairs, oddly delicious meats and Senegalese sun dresses sold by adorable Japanese girls. Porter picked up this dress (I got a skirt) at a street fair along University Place on Saturday.

Every time a great soul filled rock & roll song comes on, I say to myself, Damn, this sounds like Bo Diddley. And damn, it's so good! Must find out who it is. Almost every time: it's Bo Diddley. This is my current favorite. Play it very loud. We will be doing just that during Mad Men warm ups tonight.

As a nice end to an otherwise depressing in-between-season shopping stint last night, I found this puppy on sale at Rugby for $25. So cute - especially when one is so awful at racquet sports that the safest thing to do is leave the racquet in its madras cover...in one's apartment. For those who are slightly better at handling their raquets and shuttlecocks, there's major badminton action taking place in Minneapolis this weekend - and I've been promised loads of photo evidence, so stay tuned for that. (Gratuitous use of one word in this post, yes).

Christopher Plummer and Isabella Rosalini and Englishmen and Dogs. The wonder! Based on J.R. Ackerley's 1956 memoir, My Dog Tulip premieres at Film Forum in NYC on Sept. 1. (It's the first movie ever animated fully without using paper!).

Kings County Distillery - NYC's first whiskey distillery since prohibition (not to be confused with Tuthilltown Spirits, which is the first to make that claim in NY state) - is now pumping out its own moonshine, America's true small batch spirit! It's made with organic corn grown near the Finger Lakes with a little malted Scottish barley. They only make 2.5 gallons a day. $20 bucks/flask.

Porter will finally get her 15 seconds of Mad Men fame on next Sunday's episode (August 8)! A revolving door into Hollywood? Or right out? We'll all have to see!

(For any lucky readers who got to miss out on last year's begging and pleading, she won Banana Republic's contest for a walk on role. We both went out to L.A. in May for the shoot - and signed our lives away with confidentiality agreements. It was so, so fun, though - even for an onlooker. To celebrate the big event, we staged this little scene on Wall Street yesterday).